Everyone expects the new government to give priority to reducing Britain’s debt and to maintaining its creditworthiness. We also expect it to deal firmly with sleaze at Westminster and beyond, and to restore confidence in the political process. None of these is easy to do, especially in coalition. We should be realistic, therefore, and patient.
We should, however, also be prepared to say “it’s not just the economy, stupid”, nor is it just the expenses claimed by members of parliament. We are experiencing a deep malaise in our national life and we should be prepared to identify the causes and address them together.
What lies behind the financial crisis is massive moral failure. We have a few very wealthy individuals and institutions but a whole nation massively in debt. Instead of a culture where making more and more money is the main criterion of success, we ought to be encouraging a culture which sees working in finance as just as much of a vocation as working in the caring professions. The best of British commercial practice was rooted in the Bible’s vision of our responsibility for one another and for the rest of God’s creation. The experiment in selfishness has not succeeded. It is time to see how a biblical view of stewardship can help us in this fraught situation.
good words which will fall on deaf ears